Saturday, June 16, 2012

Do you have enough time in your day?

If you find yourself without time to take a few minutes and relax, you’re doing too much. I know you have the mental list that keeps ticking with everything needing to be done, especially if you are just starting out and if you are a really small business employee wise. Your chances for success will go down if you do not find some way to make time for you, it’s a fact and you might as well face it. For a few of you the constant pace and total focus on the business is how you relax, I am speaking to the rest of us…you over achievers can stop reading right here and get back to work!

For us, we found ourselves in business due to the downturn in the economy. When you get laid off and there is nothing starting up in your field, sometimes, starting into a related business is the only choice. Anyway, what I am getting at is that before we went to work came home and did our own thing. We enjoyed the off weekends, when we had one, evening meals together and vacations. This was because someone else had to deal with all the affairs of business ownership. Now it seems there is something business related going on 24/7 365. There is just the two of us in the business and when we were in the start up phase it seemed there was never enough time in the day. After almost a year in business it has gotten better, but the start up issues have given way to the maintenance and growth issues.

The startup issues, for the most part cannot be controlled as many of these depend on other entities to get things done and respond that have their own agenda. I have addressed some of these in previous blogs. Once you get started and business is coming in you will have the “maintenance and growth” issues. These are the everyday duties such as maintaining social pages, advertising, ordering and stocking, bill collecting and paying, selling, researching new products and markets, equipment maintenance, dealing with customer satisfaction and employee issues and on and on. The good news is that most of these can be put on a certain amount of cruise control. Utilize your best judgment for software purchases and you can easily control the majority of your paperwork issues including bill collection/payment. Set regular schedules for most of your other “maintenance” issues such as ordering, advertising/social pages renewal and updating. If you are lucky enough to have an employee or two then you should have restocking and equipment maintenance issues covered except for supervision. The customer issues just have to be handled as they occur, do not put these off, respond and settle immediately. And of course, you have to make time to stack and wrap all of your money! The key here is you have to stay organized and set schedules. If you are running your business based on the chaos theory, you will soon have plenty of time on your hands to relax!

Most of us will realize our businesses will take work and there will be little time left for ourselves. Try and take the time when you can, even if it means taking a long lunch every now and then. Decompression from the constant pressure of running a business is necessary for most of us to maintain a bright outlook and good health. Take a walk, go to the gym, go eat lunch under a tree and read a book, meet friends for lunch, there are any number of mini getaways you can do for a little break and still get everything done you need to. You will find these little breaks will give you more energy to keep up with the everyday details and a positive outlook on how things are going. Oh, and another good release…go shopping and spend a little of that money cluttering up your wallet or purse!